Into Space 360° 3D Short Films
• 4-star rating
• PCVR, Quest
• Short Films, Space
• Comfortable, Stationary
Into Space is a 24-minute long stereoscopic 360 degree cinematic-level experience showcasing human exploration of space, past and future. Rendered with high-quality lifelike graphics and using imagery available from NASA and the European Space Agency.
Step 1 presents the NASA Apollo missions and include scenes from the Saturn V rocket launch pad, lunar orbit and from the moon's surface. Step 2 anticipates what may be to come, with projections of planned and potential future Lunar and Mars missions.
We've seen imagery from the Apollo missions many times including feature films like Apollo 13 and For All Mankind, but Into Space manages to find new perspectives in many scenes. The results are often spectacular and can give an incredible sense of scale. Graphical detail is excellent, down to instrument panel detail and finely animated breathing astronauts.
The Saturn V rocket launch looks spectacular in VR.
Into Space will inspire you and fill you with awe, but unfortunately you shouldn't expect to learn a great deal here. The spectacle is accompanied by a narrative that waxes poetic, but is bereft of any historical or technical content. The visual scenes also look great, but reveal little. For example there's nothing here that captures the tension of the lunar approach and landing. In fact, this film made it look virtually effortless.
If you can view this on a PC driven virtual reality headset then you'll be getting the best experience. The Meta Quest version is almost as good, but it does suffer from a slightly lower resolution and some occasional pixelated flickering that was particularly distracting in dark scenes. If you want to try before you buy the Meta Quest version, there's a trailer you can search for on the pre-installed Meta TV app.
The Viveport PC version is a single 8 GB download. The Meta Quest app allows you to choose between streaming or pre-downloading each of two parts, also totaling around 8 GB. We'd recommend downloading before viewing for the best experience, even for those with the fastest internet connections.
Splashdown.
The second part looks into the future of space exploration.
✅ Very good stereo 360 degree cinematic-level experience
✅ Highly detailed and animated models
❌ Some video fuzziness in Quest version
❌ Light on factual information
❌ No rotation control (snap turning)
• Languages: English, French (subtitled)
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